During a recent meeting between the NBA players’ and referees’ unions, the “stop hand” was discussed as an offensive gesture to some players.
According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, players would rather have “more of an open back-and-forth” with refs.
NBA refs & players met yesterday to discuss rising tensions. They decided to create a communication channel that cuts out the league office when there are disputes: https://t.co/ffX5ByznP5
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) February 18, 2018
Referees and players also discussed techniques for dealing with each other within games. For example, one of the actions discussed was referees giving the so-called “stop hand” to players during disagreements.
While this is taught to referees as a way to diffuse a situation, it has been taken as offensive by players who want to have more of an open back-and-forth. Overall, the sides would like more open discussion of various hand signals and techniques.
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